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On the first day after the lockout officially ended, Paul Holmgren made a pair of moves, signing unrestricted free-agent defenseman Kurtis Foster and reacquiring goalie Brian Boucher in a deal with Carolina. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)

General manager Paul Holmgren would not say definitively, but again hinted strongly that the coach will return.

Holmgren apparently wants to wait until after having season-ending interviews with his players in the next few days before making a decision on Laviolette.

Asked before Saturday’s game about Laviolette’s future - and informed that a source had told a Canadian reporter that the coach would not return -Holmgren erupted in a string of expletives.

“I’m not even going to comment on the bleeping sources,” he said. “…Some idiot made it up.”

Asked if he could say for sure if Laviolette would return, Holmgren said, “I’m not saying a bleeping thing….How many times do I have to tell you I haven’t even thought about firing the coach? How many times?”

Nearly two weeks ago, Holmgren said he expected Laviolette to be back. The coach has two more years on his contract.

“I don’t blame the coaches,” Holmgren said at the time about the Flyers not making the playoffs for the first time since 2007 - and just the second time in the last 18 years.

The Flyers could finish with the league's eighth-worst record, but can climb as high as the 12th-worst. The draft lottery is Monday.

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In Saturday's contest against the Senators, winger Mike Knuble, 40, was in the lineup in what is likely the last game of his excellent career. If he doesn't play somewhere next year, Knuble said, he would like to work in a team's player personnel department.

Knuble has 278 career goals.

Winger Jason Akeson, making his NHL debut, scored 3:46 into the game. He was on a line with Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek. Akeson and Giroux grew up a few blocks from each other in Orleans, near Ottawa, and they are long-time friends.

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